Today’s Productivity Hack: Emotional Breakdown + Dishwasher

Some weeks don’t feel busy, they feel like a full-blown alarm that never shuts off. I’m in the middle of a “mommest mom” stretch where work fires, family needs, and the constant mental load stack up so fast that I caught myself about to text for prayers again, until a simple thought stopped me: if there’s an emergency every week, then it’s not an emergency. It’s just work, and I can adapt.

I walk through a real working-mom day that includes logging on for meetings, pivoting to a long neurologist appointment for my child’s ADHD testing and evaluation, and trying to stay productive on a tiny screen while my brain begs for a break. If you work in communications or any role that requires nonstop talking, you’ll recognize the end-of-day crash, the tight throat, and that internal scream you keep swallowing.

Then we get to the part that’s both funny and painfully honest: the dinner moment that shouldn’t matter, but does, because time is valuable and you’re tired. My “hot mom tip” is exactly what it sounds like, crying while cleaning, because sometimes emotional release and getting things done have to happen at the same time.

If you’re navigating mom burnout, stress, ADHD parenting logistics, or the never-ending quest for work-life balance, this is your reminder that perfection isn’t the goal. Listen, share it with a working mom who needs a reset, and then subscribe, leave a review, or message me your best survival tip so we can keep each other going.

Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Mission

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Good E hello, everybody. This is Still Rosal's Podcast. This podcast was created for women by women to elevate women's voices. I hope you all are doing really, really well. I am having the Mommest Mom Week. And for anyone that's a working mom, you probably already know where I'm going with what I'm about to say. But it is one of those weeks that's like, could anything else happen? And I will say, um it, I had this epiphany yesterday morning. I'm about to text my cousin and tell her, oh my gosh, whatever anything is really stressful going on professionally, I'll I'll text people and be like, oh my gosh, I'm so stressed out. Say some prayers for me, right? Send me some good vibes. And I was about to text my cousin and then, because she's one of my go-to people, and I had this moment of, wait, didn't you text her last week for an emergency? And then you also texted the week before that you were also really stressed out about an emergency. And she always laughs at me now that I think about it because it always eventually shakes out. But I get really stressed out anyway because I am who I am and I always want to do really well, right? So I had this epiphany moment yesterday morning, and I was like, you know, if there's emergencies every week, these aren't emergencies then, because not everything can be an emergency, right? So that means this is just it. This is just work. Like that doesn't mean it's an emergency. This is just adapt and get it done and it's just work. So I had this moment of like, oh, this is an emergency. I don't need to panic. Just make it work, right? So there was that epiphany, right? I wanted to share that with you guys because interesting. All of a sudden it like hit me and I was like, huh, you know what? I can roll with this. I roll with things all the time. Like, it's totally fine. So I wanted to leave that with you guys because I think that we all have those moments where like, oh my God. And it's funny because I didn't end up texting my cousin, but then she texted me and was like, oh, it's a total-ish SHIT show. Total shit show this week. It's happening. Sorry for the cursing. She's like, it's happening. It's really bad. It's going crazy. And then I texted her my epiphany moment. She was like, You do have a point. It's almost like it can't be a SHIT show because it's just the show. Adept, right? So there was that. I can't believe it's only Wednesday because I'm thinking about this as if the week has already happened. Although I will say this Thursdays have become like Friday juniors to me. And I actually really get excited about Thursdays too now. So, in any case, this is Tuesday's Epiphany was like every everything's an emergency, then nothing can be an emergency, right? So I kind of like pivoted a bit there because I'm always under pressure. Monday was a real bananas day. Now, this was a total, total wild mom juggle day. I ended up at the end of the day so shot that while I was washing the dishes, I just burst out into tears crying. Now I had sent everybody upstairs already because I said I was like, I need I just need some alone time, please. I it doesn't even matter that I'm wiping down the counters and cleaning up. I just need to be by myself for a little bit with no noise, right? Because all day long I work in communications, all I do is talk. That is literally my job. I have to figure out how to strategize, figure out how to get things done. And oh yes, I need to talk all the time. So by the end of the day on Monday, so Monday I have work, right? So I log in for work from 9 to 11-ish. Then I have to pivot over to getting my my kid to take him to the doctor. That appointment took a couple of hours, and I had to get back home, hop back on for work, get dinner out off the plates, like just, you know, the regular, regular stuff. But having that extra element of having to leave the house to get him to the doctor's office, bringing my basically bring my whole desk with me. Do you want to go to the doctors for that? Because we're going to neurologist for ADHD testing and evaluation. And so I bring my whole desk with me because it's a three-hour appointment. So I set up shop there. But I'm working on my tiny little monitor and I'm spoiled, I'll admit, at home, I have three monitors that I work off of because I like to be really efficient. And this is the best way for me to do it. I don't know how anyone just works off of their laptop screen. I sincerely don't. But in any case, I got to the end of the day on Monday and I'm just completely out of it. My energy is bad. I can feel it. I can sense it. I felt like there was an internal scream at the top of my lungs happening, but I actually wasn't obviously screaming because that's insane. So instead, I can just feel the tension in my throat. So my throat chakra starts closing up, right? Because of all this bad energy that I was like harboring in. All of a sudden, I forget exactly, actually, I know exactly what triggered me. I'm inside my head, I'm washing the dishes, and I had made spaghetti, right? So the kids had asked me to make ribs and pasta. So I make ribs and pasta, and then a few folks in my family, I am not gonna name names, decided they were not in the mood for pasta. Fine. Fine. They just wanted the ribs. This is fine, whatever, but at the same time, I'm like, you know, but I made, you know, I you made it. So, like as a mom, especially like for if you're a working mom, I I look at my time as valuable. So if I'm stopping everything to cook dinner, to me, I'm like, you better eat this food because I stopped everything to make sure you have food. So don't tell me you want to eat a bowl of cereal, right? So I'm kind of like unraveling as I'm cleaning because cleaning is mundane, it slows you down a little bit. It's a little bit calming in the sense, as long as you're not rage cleaning. If you're just cleaning and trying to straighten up, it's almost like you're just getting things off your chest. Like that's what it feels like to me. That's the equivalent to me, right? So I'm washing the dishes at the end of the day, and all of a sudden it pops into my head, the my family that was like, you know what? I'm not in the mood for pasta. And I just started laughing. And then from laughing, I started sobbing. But I kept cleaning because I like to be efficient with my time. And so I actually meant to text my cousin to tell her that I have an update because instead of crying in the shower at the end of the day, when I'm having a nervous breakdown because I'm so stressed out, uh, I recommend crying while you're cleaning because at least then you can be productive and you're getting things done at the same time as having a nervous breakdown. That's the hot mom tip for the week. If you're a working professional mom and you're so stressed out that you don't even know what to do in your life, let those tears out, but keep it moving. You might look crazy, but you've released the emotions. I'm laughing because I actually used to make fun of my mom for crying all the time. She still cries for everything. She cries when she talks about certain things. Yeah, I can just hear it in her voice. She gets choked up. And it's comical because that's exactly what happens to me now, which is mildly embarrassing, but I deal with it. I think it's a little bit funny. And I just say, like, oh no, my I'm not crying. My eyes are just leaking. I don't know what to do with them. Um, so that is Monday, Tuesday, and today. Like, I mean, it's only three days out of the week and things have gotten so wild that I'm hoping that the rest of the week kind of settles down a little bit and knock on wood. I actually had to do it because I'm scared that I've just jinxed myself. So the point of all this yammering is we all have it really tough. We all have good weeks and bad weeks. You kind of have to just find the momentum and the will to keep going, which you will. You obviously will, because what else do working moms do? What is the best possible thing about a professional woman who's also a mother? We are wildly adaptable. We are very strong. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. The things that working moms can do is astonishing. Being able to maintain a home, maintain, well, mildly maintain your sanity, maintain your children, maintain your career, and still be able to like be a human here and there. I'll take it. I might not be perfect every single day, but I make it some days close enough to being good. And that's honestly good enough for me. I'm not looking for perfection here, and I don't think you should either. You're just doing the best you can every single day, and that's really all you can expect from yourself. So I hope my little stories about my week thus far were entertaining because it has been kind of insane. More to come. I do want to say a special shout out to the new listeners for the podcast and all the new subscribers. I mean, I am really completely overwhelmed and to be honest with you, motivated to keep going. Every time I see this, it's such an amazing thing to see that somebody found value in this podcast. Because in the very beginning, all I wanted to do was start a podcast that showed that it's okay in your everyday life to be manic and to be crazy and to be just trying to figure it out and not to be perfect and to do it messy because that's real. That's reality. Reality is not what you see on social media. This is real. I hope you all enjoyed this episode. Thank you again to all the new subscribers and to everyone who's been with me since the beginning. I am very grateful for all of you. Take care and I will catch you on the next one.